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Open and honest - if you say you are, you’d better be!

There’s a lot of comment about so-called ‘openness’. Frankly, I don’t buy most of the hype. You either do it or you don’t. If you don’t deep-down do ‘openness’ and ‘honesty’, you’d be better off not claiming otherwise - you’ll be reviled the minute you show your true colours. Openness and honesty have to come from deep-seated personal values that are lived and demonstrated.

Here are some thoughts :

People respect circumspection when it’s done ethically and consistently.

‘Engage brain before opening mouth.’ Tact, diplomacy and good manners have a place in the world. You can state a criticism or a contrary view or express disappointment and frustration, without causing offence or compromising yourself. (I admit I find frustration challenging, and it shows!) Likewise, try to respect and protect other people’s dignity, especially in trying circumstances.

‘Neither confirm nor deny’ - a useful line in certain areas, but be consistent right from the start. If you squash a rumour when there’s nothing to it, and then say ‘I don’t comment on rumour’ to avoid the question when there is, everyone knows.

Openness and honesty are two values deeply important to me, so when there are some things I can’t tell people, or least not yet (e.g. commercial or individual privacy, public financial disclosure, etc), I’m honest about it. My promise to people is ‘I won’t lie to you; I’ll tell you as much as I can, when I can; but I can’t tell you everything’.

Every CEO gets a nickname and I’ve had some good ones and some bad ones, like ‘Chainsaw’ (I’ve done a lot of restructuring and company turnarounds). Do you know the one I’m most proud of? When I was CEO of power company Electra, having laid off a third of the staff, radically restructured our various businesses, and outsourced a lot of in-house work, the linecrews in our Linework subsidiary (a very earthy bunch) dubbed me ‘No-shit Jim‘. It was a sign of respect, one which I appreciated deeply and one which, albeit imperfectly, I have tried to live up to.